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Game Theory

Popularized by movies such as "A Beautiful Mind," game theory is the mathematical modeling of strategic interaction among rational (and irrational) agents. Beyond what we call `games' in common language, such as chess, poker, soccer, etc., it includes the modeling of conflict among nations, political campaigns, competition among firms, and trading behavior in markets such as the NYSE. How could you begin to model keyword auctions, and peer to peer file-sharing networks, without accounting for the incentives of the people using them? The course will provide the basics: representing games and strategies, the extensive form (which computer scientists call game trees), Bayesian games (modeling things like auctions), repeated and stochastic games, and more. We'll include a variety of examples including classic games and a few applications.
You can find a full syllabus and description of the course here: http://web.stanford.edu/~jacksonm/GTOC-Syllabus.html
There is also an advanced follow-up course to this one, for people already familiar with game theory: https://www.coursera.org/learn/gametheory2/
You can find an introductory video here: http://web.stanford.edu/~jacksonm/Intro_Networks.mp4

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What people are saying

We analyzed reviews for this course to surface learners' thoughts about it

game theory in 86 reviews

But unfortunately the lectures are very hard to follow for someone with university degrees but no mathematical/game theory background.

The teachers do a good job explaining the different aspects of game theory.

This course was highly informative, and covers essentially everything one should get in an introductory game theory class.

Overall though, for one wanting to become acquainted with game theory, this is an excellent choice.

It teaches very well about the different types of game and how to solve them using logic and mathematical analysis Compactly and concisely organized to show the application of cutting-edge knowledge of game theory This is a very good course that takes us through the mathematics as well as the concepts of game theory.

Clearly both the effort and enthusiasm of the instructors Fun intro to game theory.

It was useful to go through the basics of Game Theory in a systematic manner.

Game theory is a very interesting field, the teachers are very nice!

introduction to game in 13 reviews

a very clear, comprehensive introduction to game theory.

easily understood course, it would have been nice if some road map on where to proceed next is communicated More coding please A very interesting introduction to Game Theory.

Fairly simple introduction to game theory, but I gained an understanding of what the subject is all about.

Interesting one, but I think this course is better called "introduction to introduction to game theory".As game theory is really a tough discipline, I guess the designer of this course might have taken this point a bit too far, fearing that learners online might have trouble digesting the true game theory course.In terms of definitions and examples, most analysis are limited to very basic two-player games with simple calculation.You don't get to understand things without applying it to generality and larger data scale.Also, I doubt some simple programming could be introduced to enrich the assignment.I suppose it's better suited for those finance and economics majors, not CS majors.

Could have included more exercises and problems A great introduction to Game Theory covering basic concepts.

Insightful & Quantitative 烧脑， Good Introduction to Game theory.

Excellent introduction to Game Theory!

Very coherent introduction to game theory.

easy to understand in 11 reviews

All three of the professors present the material, but not in a way that is easy to understand.

The videos are not always easy to understand.

Easy to understand and explore the new model of thinking Awesome course, really interesting, though it will be better with more exercises.

Great course, easy to understand but with great insight.

a lot of examples and exercises to make the course practical and easy to understand.

Easy to understand.

It covers the basics of game theory quite well Very good , structured, easy to understand even with minimal math background.

I think it would be more easy to understand the concepts with more examples Very formal and difficult to follow.

problem sets in 8 reviews

After the first few weeks the lectures simply do not prepare you to answer the problem sets (which often contain grammatically confused questions which may or may not change the answer).All in all the material is very interesting and two of the instructors do a very good job explaining mathematical notation.

The problem sets are well chosen and do a great job of reinforcing the concepts taught.

The material presented in the lectures was almost entirely conceptual (which is fine), but often the material in the problem sets required applications that hadn't been explained in the lecture, which was quite frustrating and I think counter-productive to learning.

I found I was able to complete most of the problem sets within 4-5 hours, with an average of about 3 hours.

The formal definitions of games and concepts are more demanding, but a complete understanding of the formal definition is not required to solve the problem sets or the exam.

The problem sets did have a few bugs and typos, but they were still readable/doable.

the only reason was that the lectures and notes never addressed the questions in the problem sets.

They do cover the theory but not enough practical examples to help the students take the problem sets.

real life in 6 reviews

I am sure modeling real life situation is much more complex, and this course sets the stage for more advanced topics.

Like I've not really learned enough to apply all this in real life...

good Gives a different perspective for anlaysing competition in the real life situation.

Great and quite practical, really get me the insight of this lesson The Questions in the weekend quizzes are not that challenging and the lectures are also not concentrated on complicated (Real life scenarios).

It explains many kinds of problem we usually encounter in real life.

And I am not talking about "real life application", but the ones given later on the test.

my opinion in 5 reviews

In my opinion in requires some mathematical background (e.g.

Some coursework are difficult, because they are quite different compare to those in the lectures 很有挑战性的一门课程，学完很有成就感 In my opinion, some lectures do not fully explain the theory or do not show enough practical application of the theory.

In my opinion, it gets too technical and it is not a self contained course at all.

== Pros: == \- Lectures are very well done \- Community forum is active with good support from TA's == Cons: == \- The grading policy has changed and (in my opinion) ruins the an otherwise stellar course == More info on the grading policy: == Currently, you only get one chance to complete the test.

This course on game theory has two fundamental flaws in my opinion: The first problem are the video lectures.

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